


Michael's Big Day Out

by lamegay



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 12:24:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16137191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamegay/pseuds/lamegay
Summary: 'After a while of exploring be began to find it strange how his human body's face muscles were beginning to ache from smiling for so long.'Just a cutesy missing scene about Michael getting that coffee flask. It had a weirdly huge impact on me for some reason? It was just a really nice moment and it might be my favourite moment from the entire run of TGP thus farI kind of just wrote it down in my notes app because exploring this idea was really really cathartic for me





	Michael's Big Day Out

 After making all the adjustments for the rest of his fellow members of Team Cockroach (it was the last bit of meddling in the mortal realm, he swears) Michael looked at his human watch. The passage of time on Earth was something he wasn't familiar with, Hell - sorry, _heck_ \- the passage of time on Earth actually had an effect on that realm which was fascinating. He had no frame of reference as to _why_ he was checking his watch, he just felt it was the human thing to do, and judged that he had some extra time.

So he did what any normal human would do with that extra time after completing a goal. He would waste it! When in Rome do as the Romans do after all.

 There was a shopping mall nearby- a mall! Full of other humans, wandering about, busy with whatever it is they were doing, customer service workers smiling through jobs they probably hated. He simply had to go.  
As he walked aimlessly but with more enthusiasm than any normal person would he noticed people glancing at him. It was probably because of the expression of pure unadulterated wonder he could seem to wipe off his face- and he didn't want to! After a while of exploring he began to find it strange how his human body's face muscles were beginning to ache from smiling for so long. How sad, he thought, that and how odd that despite the pain in his fleshy face muscles he didn't seem to mind and found it almost impossible to stop.

 He looked at his watch again, again with no real purpose. He was pushing his luck staying for so long, the two primary hands (the ones that didn't tick every... second? He took a moment to measure it. Yes, approximately a single second) had moved enough for him to notice an amount of time had passed. That was disappointing. But all good things, he supposed.

 As he was resolving to leave he remembered what Jason had asked about a gift shop. Michael _was_ still a demon, regardless of how much he'd changed and how much he wanted to continue down this path of goodness, he still had something of an attachment to the shirtier parts of humanity. He wanted a souvenir of what was quite possibly his final ever trip to Earth, whether or not their just-crazy-enough-to-work plan was successful- not that he had any doubts, this _would_  work.

 What became obvious after skimming through the map of the mall conveniently in the middle of every floor on a kind of obelisk was that malls don't have gift shops. He decided, instead, that he would simply have to get a gift from a shop.

 "Dunkin' Donuts? No, they just sell donuts. I can ask Janet for one of those," he said to himself as he read through the stores, conveniently ignoring the fact he could ask Janet for anything instead of going through the effort of doing it himself. "No... No... Not that either... Now I know how Chidi feels." He laughed to himself. "What would Eleanor do?" he asked himself before realising that at her worst she'd probably just log into somebody else's Amazon account and bulk order some kind of monthly subscription to Dance Moms apparel.

 He eventually decided to take it (sl)easy and see where he was drawn to. Which was everywhere, but be was a bit more selective with his goal in mind.

 He found a small store, one with a lot of homeware and décor. It was... Nice. Nothing designer but still nicely designed. Modern. Just a very pleasant style throughout. Nothing that would be an eyesore in someone's home. No clowns or anything. Tahani would probably describe it as 'minimalist and... quaint.'  
He wandered for a bit, wondering what on Earth would be a good souvenir from this place. He didn't have a house after all. If he ever got to go to the Good Place he in that moment decided that he'd like to have a house.

 Not that he was ever going to become bored of his adventure into mundanity (one of his favourite parts of the human experience) he was very aware that he couldn't spend the rest of forever there. He had to return to where he belonged and stores had closing times.

 It was as he began to lose hope when he saw it. It was perfect. It elicited almost no reaction from him personally but it reminded him of someone. Yes, this thermal drinks container. He picked it up. Examined the quality of the image of the tree frog emblazoned upon it. This was it. The souvenir from Earth. His face muscles started to hurt again but he hardly noticed.

* * *

 

"I got a souvenir from Earth while I was there."

 "Cool! What? Show me," said Janet. She was starting to get Michael's interest in humanity and the mortal realm, in no small part to her friends and her being so advanced she was starting to think she might be well and truly _alive_... well, as alive as a being such as herself could be- which could be a lot! Nobody knew.

 "Oh, I don't have it."

 "You don't?"

 "I got it for the doorman. I thought he would like it."

 Janet looked at him for a fraction of time immeasurable to all but only the highest beings and Janets longer than usual. "You bought someone a gift because you saw it and thought of them? For no other reason?"

 "Yes. Why?"

 "That was a really nice thing of you to do Michael. I think they would be proud of you."  
He hadn't realised. Those stupid idiots had really rubbed off on him. "Thank you Janet." His face hurt again.

 "You're crying."

 "I know, tear ducts are weird. I should get a glass of water to refill."

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review and let me know what you thought!
> 
> Thanks for reading


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